JP2575665B2 - Logical diagram outline description conversion processing method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Overview] When a computer is used to create / edit a logic diagram expressing the control structure and data structure of a program by a graphic pattern, a description of a part of the logic diagram displayed on a display is extracted. Therefore, by providing a means for separating the description into a summary description and a detailed description, the operability of the definition of the summary description and the detailed description is improved.
It is easy to improve flexibility and the like.

[Industrial applications]

The present invention is an apparatus for creating / editing a logical diagram in which a logical diagram outline description conversion processing method in a logical diagram creation processing apparatus, in particular, a control diagram and a data structure of a program are represented by a graphic pattern. The present invention relates to a logic diagram outline description conversion method in a logic diagram creation processing apparatus which can easily separate an existing description into a summary description and a detailed description.

Increasing the productivity of programs executed by computers has become increasingly important in recent years.
Therefore, development of design documents that are easy to structure and programming languages that are close to human languages are desired. Along with this, it is desired to facilitate creation / editing of the design document or program.

[Conventional technology]

In conventional program development, design specifications are described in a flow chart or the like, and coating is performed based on a predetermined syntax rule according to a programming language while referring to the flow chart.

However, the conventional flow chart is not always suitable for a structured program, and it has been difficult to intuitively grasp the control structure and the like of the program based on the flow chart and the source program.

For this reason, the manufacturing structure is represented by graphic symbols, the control range and level are clearly indicated by control lines, and a logical diagram that allows sufficient text to be written in accordance with the graphic symbols, etc. It is considered to be used for development and maintenance. This logic diagram can be used as a design document, and if the sentence part complies with the prescribed rules, it can be used as a source program by a translation process. It is considered to be very useful for improving maintainability and maintainability.

However, if it takes a long time to create / edit a logical diagram, the burden on the designer increases, and the production efficiency decreases. Therefore, such a logical diagram can be created / edited as simply and quickly as possible. It is desired.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a document including a graphic element and a sentence is created, it is general that the document is created by handwriting using a template or the like. Alternatively, such a document has been created by a word processor capable of inputting graphic elements.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

It is considered that the above logic diagram is created by handwriting or by using a general-purpose word processor or program editor. However, it takes a lot of time and effort, the burden on the designer is large, and correction is required. Is also inconvenient.

Therefore, a processing device that creates / edits a logical diagram while displaying it on a display screen by a computer and that can easily input a specific graphic symbol or the like and a sentence portion has been considered.

By the way, in creating the above-mentioned logic diagram, in order to enable description suitable for a structured program, a series of processes in the logic diagram is described as, for example, a one-line summary description, and the detailed contents are described as a detailed description. , It is considered to be written in another part. Separating a series of processes into a summary description and a detailed description makes it possible to simplify the control structure, and makes the detailed description part available from many other places as a so-called subroutine call. .

It is only necessary to be able to systematically create such a summary description and detailed description from the initial creation stage of a logic diagram. In some cases, however, a series of processes that have already been described will be later summarized as a summary description, It is often thought that it is necessary to separate the parts as detailed descriptions. In this case, it is necessary to perform a complicated operation of inserting the outline description, moving the part to be the detailed description, and inserting a graphic symbol or the like for declaring the detailed description.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems and to allow an arbitrary description portion in a logical diagram to be separated into a general description and a detailed description by a simple operation, and to enable the reverse operation. .

[Means for solving the problem]

 FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a logic diagram creation processing device for creating a logic diagram by executing instructions by a central processing unit (CPU), and 12
Is a separation instruction input processing unit that inputs a separation instruction, 13 is a separation range input processing unit that inputs a separation range following input of a separation instruction, 14 is an outline description definition processing unit that writes an outline description in a logical diagram, and 15 is a separation The detailed description definition processing unit that writes the described description in another part as a detailed description, 16 is an embedded instruction input processing unit that inputs an embedded instruction, 17 is a detailed description incorporation processing unit that incorporates the detailed description into the corresponding outline description part, and 18 is An input device such as a keyboard or a mouse, 19 is a logical diagram to be created, which is stored in code in a memory or the like, 32 is a display,
Reference numeral 51 denotes a logical diagram file in which the contents of the logical diagram 19 are stored.

The logic diagram 19 created by the logic diagram creation processing device 11 is a chart described by a combination of a graphic element representing the structure of a process and data and a sentence representing the content of the process and data. Codes corresponding to various graphic symbols of the graphic element are assigned to the graphic element representing the structure in the same manner as a normal character code. The logical diagram 19 to be created / updated is stored in the logical diagram file 51 and read out to the memory as needed.

In this logic diagram 19, the control lines L0, L1, L
With 2, ..., the hierarchy of the logical structure can be illustrated. Graphic symbol S3 and summary name S4
Thus, an outline of the processing can be described. The corresponding detailed description is a portion sandwiched between a graphic symbol S9 for designating the start of the detailed description and a graphic symbol S10 for designating the end of the detailed description.
Is represented by an outline name S4 described on the right side of.

By using this summary description, it is possible to successively proceed with the stepwise design from the general design to the detailed design in the program development. At a final program level, this summary description can be considered to function as a so-called subroutine call.

In the logic diagram 19 shown in FIG.
If the description part of "a" or "ccc" becomes long and it is difficult to grasp the processing flow, or if there is a possibility that it will be referred to at multiple places in the logic diagram, separate it into a summary description and a detailed description Needs may arise.

In this case, the separation instruction input processing unit 12 is
When the separation instruction is input using the menu displayed in
The separation range input processing unit 13 is started. Separation range input processing section
13 inputs the range of the description to be separated by moving the cursor on the display screen.

Next, the outline description definition processing unit 14 displays the symbol S3 indicating the outline description in the part of the description to be separated, and inputs the outline name S4 given to the outline description to the right of the symbol S3. Define the description and replace the original description with its summary description.

The detailed description definition processing unit 15 sets the description of "aaa" or "ccc" specified as the separation range at the back of the logical diagram, and at the beginning of the description, a symbol S9 indicating the start of the detailed description and a summary name
In addition to S4, a symbol S10 indicating the end of the detailed description is inserted at the end. As a result, the original logical diagram 19 shown in FIG. 1A is converted into the logical diagram 19 shown in FIG. 1B. The detailed description having the outline name “AAA” can be referred to in other parts by the outline description specifying the outline name “AAA”.

Contrary to this separation, it is more convenient if there is a processing function that incorporates the detailed description into the outline description and integrates them. When the detailed description part is short or the description is local, it may be easier to understand a series of descriptions than to describe them separately. For this purpose, a built-in instruction input processing unit 16 and a detailed description built-in processing unit 17 are provided.

When a built-in instruction is input from a menu or the like, the built-in instruction input processing unit 16 activates the detailed description built-in processing unit 17. The detailed description embedding processing unit 17 receives the logical diagram 19 shown in FIG.
Is converted as shown in FIG.

[Action]

When a separation instruction is input by the separation instruction input processing unit 12, the separation description is automatically input by the separation range input processing unit 13 and the outline name is input by the outline description definition processing unit 14. The definition is made, and a detailed description of the description part specified as the separation range is made.

Therefore, at the beginning of the creation of the logical diagram 19, input the outline description and detailed description without consideration,
If you want to make the logic diagram easier to understand,
Be able to separate detailed operations. Similarly, when it becomes necessary to organize the contents by repeating partial corrections, or when multiple processes are performed at multiple locations, the summary description and the detailed description can also be written in a simple manner. By the separation operation, the logical diagram 19 can be arranged, and a simple and lean logical diagram 19 can be easily created.

〔Example〕

2 is an example of a logic diagram created by the logic diagram creation processing device according to the present invention, FIG. 3 is a hardware configuration example of the logic diagram creation processing device according to the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a logic diagram according to the present invention. Example of display edit screen in creation processing device,
FIG. 5 is a processing configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.

The logic diagram to be created by the logic diagram creation processing apparatus according to the present invention is, for example, a chart based on a combination of a graphic pattern and a sentence as shown in FIG. The various graphic symbols on the left side represent the logical structure according to the hierarchy, and the statements on the right side represent the specific contents of data and processing procedures.

In FIG. 2, L0 is a symbol indicating a control line of control level "0". L1 indicates a control line of control level "1", and L2 indicates a control line of control level "2". Similarly, as the control level becomes deeper, a control line is added to the right.

S1 is a graphic symbol indicating the start of a logic diagram. S2 is a graphic symbol that declares the start of the data section, procedure section, syntax definition section, and the like. S3 is a graphic symbol indicating a general description of a certain process, and S4 is a general name given to the general description. S5 is a graphic symbol indicating a repetition (UNTIL) structure. S
6 is a graphic symbol indicating a judgment (IF) structure. The symbol in S7 indicates sequential processing. S8 is a symbol indicating the range of the repetition and the return. S9 is a graphic symbol indicating the start of a detailed description in which the detailed content of the general description indicated by the graphic symbol S3 is expanded. The outline name S4 described on the right side is associated with the original outline description. S10 is a graphic symbol indicating the end of the detailed description. S11 is a graphic symbol indicating the end of the logic diagram.

This logic diagram can be translated into a low-level programming language by a logic diagram compiler, provided that the right-hand sentence portion follows certain syntax rules. That is, this logic diagram is a design / maintenance document and the program itself.

The present invention can be applied to, for example, a general-purpose computer system as shown in FIG.

In FIG. 3, 30 is a central processing unit (CPU) for fetching and executing sequential instructions, 31 is a memory, 32 is a display,
33 is an external storage device such as a magnetic disk device or a floppy disk device, 34 is a printer, 35 is a keyboard, 36 is a position indicating device such as a mouse, light pen or tablet. As the position pointing device 36, a cursor movement key or the like on the keyboard 35 can be used.

The logical diagram is created while being displayed on the display 32 by the input from the keyboard 35 and the position pointing device 36. The created logic diagram is stored in the external storage device 33. The logic diagram is printed on the printer 34 as needed. The logic diagram is an input to a logic diagram compiler, a logic diagram debugger, and the like.

FIG. 4 is an example of a logical diagram editing screen. In the display screen 10 shown in FIG. 4, 40 is a command route bar,
41 indicates a menu and 42 indicates a cursor.

By positioning the cursor 42 on various patterns of the command route bar 40 and pressing a mouse button or the like, various kinds of scroll processing, mark processing, summing processing, locate processing, and the like can be performed. In addition, it is possible to specify a line feed, specify a continuation line, specify a line number, specify a control level, move an area, set a window, specify a help message, and the like.

The menu 41 is a frame for selecting an editing operation dynamically displayed by pressing a mouse button or the like according to an editing scene. By moving the cursor 42 within this frame and pressing a mouse button or the like, an editing operation shown in the menu can be selected.

Various operation instruction messages in editing are displayed in a frame at the bottom line on the display screen 10.

The overall processing configuration of the logical diagram creation processing device according to the present invention is as follows.
For example, it is as shown in FIG.

The processing device 50 includes a CPU and a memory, and is a device that executes predetermined instructions of various processing units described below in connection with creation of a logic diagram. The logical diagram file 51 is a file in which the created logical diagram is stored. The main control unit 52 controls activation of various processing units related to the creation of a logic diagram.

The setup unit 53 is activated first to perform a table initialization process, a device initialization process, and the like used for a logical diagram creation process. The new creation / update processing unit 54 executes a creation process of a new logical diagram or an update process of a previously created logic diagram. The help processing unit 55 performs a process of displaying guide information of the entire operation related to the creation of a logical diagram.

The print control unit 56 controls to output the created logic diagram to the printer 34. The control level processing unit 57 performs processing for adding control level information to the beginning and end of a logical diagram corresponding to the control line of the logical diagram in each page when the page is switched in printing the logical diagram. It is.

The file input / output unit 58 processes input / output for the logical diagram file 51. The screen display control section 59 controls to display a screen as shown in FIG. The menu control unit 60 displays the menu 41 and the like shown in FIG. 4 and controls menu selection. The input processing unit 61 performs input processing from the keyboard 35 and the position pointing device 36.
The key history management unit 62 stores input information relating to the creation of a logical diagram by the input processing unit 61, and performs a process of reproducing the creation operation based on the stored input information. The key history file 63 is a file for storing the input information.

In the new creation / update processing unit 54, the scroll processing unit
70 performs processing for moving the display content of the display screen up, down, left, and right. The positioning processing unit 71 performs a process of adjusting the display screen to a designated position in the logical diagram.
In particular, the mark processing unit 72 performs a process of adding a mark to a designated position in a logical diagram in advance for positioning. The summing processing unit 73 processes the display position of the logical diagram so that a desired position is opened by inserting a finger into the book. The window management unit 74 performs a process of displaying a part of another logic diagram partially on the original logic diagram on the same screen.

The insertion processing unit 75, the deletion processing unit 76, the copy processing unit 77, and the movement processing unit 78 respectively perform the same processing as insertion, deletion, copying, and movement of a document in a word processor or the like. However, in the case of a logical diagram, unlike the case of document data only, the object to be edited includes a graphic symbol indicating the structure.
Processing taking into account consistency, such as automatic adjustment of the control level, is performed.

The symbol change processing unit 79 performs a process of changing a symbol representing a structure. The limited syntax processing unit 80 allows the selection of a standardized / standardized syntax expression when inputting the right sentence part in the logic diagram, and processes the input of the variable part.

The copy replacement processing unit 81 inserts the content to be copied by the copy processing unit 77 into the copy position, but replaces the copy content with the content of the original logical diagram at the copy position. The check processing unit 82 checks whether the created logical diagram is correct structurally and semantically, and if there is an incorrect notation, performs a process of positioning the display in that part. . The part registration / part development processing unit 83 performs a process of extracting a series of notations frequently used in the logic diagram, converting the notation into parts, and developing the parts at an arbitrary designated position.

The search processing unit 84 performs a process of searching for a designated display from the logic diagram. The replacement processing unit 85 searches for the specified notation from the logic diagram and performs a process of replacing it with another specified notation. The step-down / step-up processing unit 86 combines a series of processes as a “summary” to increase the control level or cancels the “summary” to make the original control level easier to see. This is to perform a return process.

The memo registration / memo development processing section 87 temporarily stores a part of the logic diagram in a predetermined work buffer, and develops this part in another location. Overview display processing unit 88
Is to extract important parts in the control structure from the original logical diagram and display the outline of the logical diagram so that the entire logical diagram can be seen according to the control level. .

The detailed description processing unit 89 performs a positioning process of the detailed description corresponding to the outline description and an input process of the detailed description. The separation / incorporation processing unit 90 extracts a series of processes specified in the logic diagram, replaces them with an outline description, and performs a process of separating and describing the extracted part as a detailed description. . Conversely, processing for incorporating the detailed description into the general description by designation is also performed.

The write processing unit 91 performs a process of writing the logical diagram being created into the logical diagram file 51. The help processing unit 92 performs a process of displaying an operation guide message related to the new creation / update process. The termination processing unit 93 performs termination processing of the new creation / update processing. In this end processing, the edited logical diagram is saved or discarded as specified.

The present invention is particularly applicable to the separation / embedding processing unit 90 shown in FIG.
Related to processing. Hereinafter, this separation / embedding processing unit
An example of the process 90 will be described with reference to FIG. Sixth
FIG. 6A shows a process related to separation, and FIG. 6B shows a process related to embedding. In the following description,
This corresponds to the processing numbers 1 to 6 shown in FIG.

For example, the menu 41 on the editing screen shown in FIG. 4 is displayed on the display screen 10, and the position of the menu indicated by the cursor 42 is input.

The position of the cursor 42 is determined, and it is determined whether or not the menu instructed to be selected is “separation”. If it is not "separation", another corresponding editing process is performed.

In the case of "separation", next, the range of the description to be separated indicated by the cursor 42 is input.

The description part specified as the separation range is extracted from the logical diagram.

At the place where the description to be separated exists in the logical diagram, the graphic symbol of the outline description is displayed.

 Enter the outline name to the right of the graphic symbol in the outline description.

A series of extracted descriptions is set at the back of the logical diagram as a detailed description.

Before and after the detailed description set at the back of the logical diagram, enter a symbol indicating the start and end of the detailed description. The name of the outline given to the outline description is inserted to the right of the starting symbol.

For example, pointer information from the outline description to the detailed description as shown in FIG. 6 (c) is stored in a predetermined work table. This work table is dynamically generated for speeding up processing, but this processing is not necessary in a system that does not manage pointer information.

The incorporation process for performing the reverse process of the above separation process is performed, for example, as shown in FIG. In the following description, 〜 corresponds to the process number に shown in FIG.

In the menu 41 on the editing screen, the position of the menu pointed by the cursor 42 is input.

The position of the cursor 42 is determined, and it is determined whether the menu instructed to be selected is “embedded”. If it is not "embedded", another corresponding editing process is performed.

In the case of “embedded”, the position of the outline description or the detailed description is input by the cursor 42. Note that an outline name may be entered.

The detailed description corresponding to the specification in the processing is extracted from the logical diagram.

Replace the outline description with the contents of the detailed description extracted in the processing.

If necessary, the pointer information to the detailed description is deleted from the general description shown in FIG.

The above summary description and detailed description are n: 1 for each description.
(N ≧ 1) is possible, and the correspondence is defined by the outline name. In the case of embedding, embedding processing may be performed only for one designated outline description, or embedding to all outline descriptions having the same outline name may be performed. If the entire summary description has been incorporated, the original detailed description is deleted from the logic diagram.

In this embodiment, the detailed description processing unit 89 shown in FIG.
By specifying the position of the outline description when the outline description is displayed on the display screen,
The corresponding detailed description can be displayed immediately on the display screen. Therefore, the designer does not need to memorize the position of the separated detailed description.

〔The invention's effect〕

Unlike the conventional flow charts, the logical diagram to be created by the present invention is easy to structure and easy to grasp the logical structure by hierarchy, and there are no restrictions such as boxes in the text description part. It has many advantages, such as being able to freely describe explanations and processing procedures, and being able to directly use a design document as a source program.

According to the present invention, when creating this logical diagram,
When the outline description and the detailed description related to the structuring are defined for the original series of descriptions, it becomes possible to easily specify the outline description and the detailed description later, thereby speeding up the work of editing the outline description and the detailed description. Since the outline description and the detailed description can be easily defined, it is possible to easily improve the readability, flexibility, and the like of the logical diagram by structuring the processing procedure and the like. On the other hand, when it is better that the outline description and the detailed description are not separated, the detailed description can be incorporated into the outline description portion by a simple operation only by giving an installation instruction.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the principle of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an example of a logical diagram created by a logical diagram creating processor according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a hardware configuration example of a logical diagram creating processor according to the present invention. 4 shows an example of a display editing screen in the logic diagram creation processing apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 5 shows a processing configuration diagram of one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 shows a processing explanatory diagram of one embodiment of the present invention. . In the figure, 11 is a logical diagram creation processing unit, 12 is a separation instruction input processing unit, 13 is a separation range input processing unit, 14 is a summary description definition processing unit, 1
5 is the detailed description definition processing unit, 16 is the embedded instruction input processing unit, 17
Is a detailed description embedded processing unit, 18 is an input device, 19 is a logic diagram, 32
Is a display, 51 is a logical diagram file, S3 is a graphic symbol for a general description, S4 is a general name, S9 is a graphic symbol for starting a detailed description, and S10 is a graphic symbol for ending a detailed description.

Continuation of the front page (56) References Information Processing Society of Japan 31st (late 1985) National Conference Proceedings P. 481-P. 482 3F-5 "YAC Notation for Program Generation" Proceedings of the 31st IPSJ Annual Convention (late 1985) 555-P. 556 7F-9 "Automation of software development based on YAC specifications and its evaluation" Proceedings of the 31st IPSJ Annual Conference (late 1985) 491-P. 492 4F-2 "IMAP system (2)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An image processing apparatus includes a central processing unit, a memory, a display, and an input device capable of inputting a position on a display screen, and a graphic element for expressing a structure of processing and data, and a content of processing and data. A logical diagram (19), which is a diagram described by a combination with a statement to be created and which is a program design document or a source program, is displayed / displayed on the display.
A logical diagram outline description conversion processing method in a logical diagram creation processing device for editing, comprising: a separation instruction input processing means (12) for inputting a separation instruction for a series of descriptions in a logical diagram; The separation range input processing means (13) for inputting the range of the description to be separated in the logical diagram displayed on the display from the input device and the outline name (S4) to be given to the description part to be separated are input. An outline description definition processing means (14) for replacing the description part to be separated with an outline description composed of a combination of a graphic element (S3) indicating the outline description and a specified outline name (S4); A detailed description definition process in which a graphic element (S9, S10) indicating a detailed description and a description of a summary name are added to the description, and the description is described at another position in the logical diagram as the detailed description corresponding to the above-described summary description. Means (15), a built-in instruction input processing means (16) for inputting a built-in instruction of the detailed description in the logic diagram, And a detailed description incorporation processing means (17) for replacing and integrating with the contents of the detailed description.